Thursday, August 23, 2012

These words have never been written anywhere before, but we came to the city of Corona to escape the heat. Yes, you read that correctly. My roommate is pretty frugal when it comes to paying for air conditioning, so with the heat wave we have been having in Southern California, it has been uncomfortable to say the least. We were going to be up in Corona one night, then back to Yorba Linda for my nieces birthday the next afternoon, so it just made sense to stay in a hotel and take advantage of their air conditioning. It also gave us a rare chance to try one of Corona's favorites for breakfast, Silver Dollar Pancake House.

Silver Dollar Pancake House has a real old time feel to it. Of course the reason for that is because it is real old. This restaurant dates back to the 1920's. It has been a car hop restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, a Chinese place, and in the early 50's they became Silver Dollar Pancake House. This eatery has survived two fires, but with the hard work of the married couple that met and fell in love here, they are still churning out what some call Corona's best breakfast.

We slept in to enjoy the air conditioning, and to avoid the long wait times that many people posted about in on-line reviews of this place. We showed up at noon on a Sunday, and still had about a fifteen minute wait. This small restaurant has a counter in the front room, and up a few stairs is the main dining area, with about twenty or so tables. Not many people choose to sit at the counter, so the dining area was bustling with activity. The walls of this restaurant are lined with framed pictures, some of which are autographed. JFK, Mohammad Ali, Mr. Clean, Bill Clinton, the Retired Postman of Corona, and other local celebrities have a place of honor on their waiting area wall. Our wait for a table was up, so it was time to head to the crowded and warm dining room. Here's how the food came out.

First up was Katie's Western Omelet ($8.49) which came with bell peppers, onions, bacon , and cheese. Katie was a little turned off by the cheese here, which she believed to be American. Odd choice for an omelet, but I had a few bites of this and really enjoyed it. This was stuffed with lots of crisp bacon, the veggies were all right, but the salsa really stole the show. It had a great heat to it, and really enhanced this omelet. The hash browns were pretty average.

I liked Katie's breakfast a lot more than I liked my choice, the Country Scramble ($6.59). This scramble was made up of 2 biscuits and gravy, 2 sunny side up eggs, and 2 strips of bacon. The eggs were a tad over cooked, while the bacon was thick cut, and cooked just the way I like it. You could tell that the biscuits are scratch made. On their own they would have been pretty good, but the gravy really detracted from them. It was very runny, with little to no flavor. The salsa helped wake this plate up, but not enough to get past the gravy.

So this is a pancake house, so of course we definitely needed to get pancakes here. The ones that everyone raved about on-line were the Banana Pancakes ($7.39). These were not just your standard banana pancakes with banana flavoring in the batter. These were more like pancakes you would see served at a county fair, pancakes that are way more over the top than your standard restaurant pancake. These cakes were served with whipped cream, pecans, and a caramel sauce. The pancake itself was pretty light, for a pancake. The banana kind of got lost here in some bites, but the caramel sauce and pecans really negated the need for the banana. I would have liked a little extra caramel sauce on these, but they were already rich enough without it. These are definitely worth getting on trips here.

We can see why this place has become a local favorite. The vibe here is real small town, with an emphasis on big plates of food. All of the waitress's seemed to know most of the customers here, or at least acted like they did. The food here is not going to change your life, but the banana pancakes just might. The egg dishes were okay but should only be ordered to help augment the sweetness from the pancakes. Prices were pretty fair for the amount of food you receive. We were not hungry the rest of the day after eating here. So after this filling meal, it was back to OC to sweat it out with no air conditioning. Thanks for saving us from the sweltering heat Corona!

Out of five lumberjacks, (because the Silver Dollar City amusement park in Branson, Missouri has hosted logging competitions in its park), five being best to zero being worst, Silver Dollar Pancake House gets 2.5 lumberjacks.